World powers will make Iran an offer with "significant new elements" in a bid to resolve the dispute over its nuclear program at talks next week in Kazakhstan, a western diplomat said Wednesday, according to AFP.
The next round of talks with Iran under the '5+1' format -- UN Security Council members Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States, plus Germany -- will be held on February 26 in Almaty after a long gap.
"We will take an offer with us which we believe to be a serious and substantial offer," the western diplomat told reporters in London, on condition of anonymity.
"This is an offer which we think has significant new elements in it."
The diplomat refused however to give any specific details regarding the new offer, following reports that the major powers could ease sanctions on Iran's trade in gold and other precious metals in return for the closure of a uranium enrichment plant.
The western official also played down the chances of an immediate breakthrough in the talks over Iran's nuclear program, which Iran insists is peaceful but which western powers say is designed to produce nuclear weapons.
"We are approaching the talks with a sense of urgency but this is not necessarily a sprint," said the diplomat, as quoted by AFP.
While four rounds of UN sanctions on Iran coupled with separate measures by the United States and EU have affected the country's economy, such measures remain insufficient in guaranteeing a positive Iranian response at the talks, the official added.
"The centrifuges keep spinning and the sanctions keep biting," the diplomat said.
The talks aim to address a key Western concern about Iran's capacity to enrich uranium to fissile purities of 20 percent.